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The death of Cory Monteith was surely one of Hollywood's darkest moments in 2013; besides leaving behind a legacy of genuine kindness and talent, his passing left a short-term and long-term hole in the stories on Glee.

Ryan Murphy and Co. recovered nicely with a beautiful tribute episode at the top of the season; now EW has published some of Murphy's remarks from a memorial service for Monteith. In them, Murphy revealed his original plan for the final moments of Glee, which he had already written:

"The ending of Glee is something I have never shared with anyone, but I always knew it. I’ve always relied on it as a source of comfort, a North Star. At the end of season six, Lea [Michele]‘s Rachel was going to have become a big Broadway star, the role she was born to play. Finn was going to have become a teacher, settled down happily in Ohio, at peace with his choice and no longer feeling like a Lima loser. The very last line of dialogue was to be this: Rachel comes back to Ohio, fulfilled and yet not, and walks into Finn’s glee club. “What are you doing here?” he would ask. “I’m home,” she would reply. Fade out. The end."

Murphy's sharing of that vision—when he still has the daunting task of trying to come up with an alternative as poignant—was a brave and sweet tribute to Monteith, a chance to remember another ending when it comes to his life.